Legacy 1x11: Power Thrust
by Lady Dawson
Summary: Complete. A mysterious sickness is spreading through San Francisco and mortals are suddenly possessing demonic powers. Can the gang figure out what's going on before an army of demons suddenly appears? And can Susan convince Chris to help them?
1. Mortality and Visions

**Legacy: Power Thrust**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: Mortality and Visions

Susan Dawson moved around the kitchen, considerably more cheerful than normal as she tapped to the music on the radio and pushed the eggs in the frying pan around while there was bacon on another one, cooking diligently while the witchlighter turned up the music enough so that it would wake her best friend, currently sleeping in her bedroom, but not enough to annoy the neighbours, AKA her ex-boyfriend Chris Halliwell.

Before she could even start feeling guilty about what had happened the previous day between her and Chris, arms wrapped around her waist, drawing her in closer and she giggled, leaning back against her boyfriend Ethan Hale, who kissed her hair as he inhaled.

"Wow, do you really do this every morning? Because Betty Crocker needs to move over if that's true," he said with a grin. Susan grinned up at him.

"No, I just felt like cooking a decent meal for once," she answered, shrugging. "And you are not any excuses about taking off immediately. You can sit down and have breakfast before you go looking for the Amazons." Ethan grinned, swiping a piece of bacon off the pan.

"Sweetheart, since when have I ever been able to say no to you?" he asked seriously as he stuffed it into his mouth. Susan considered.

"Well, how about when we broke up?"

"Apart from then."

Susan smiled at him, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him, but just before their lips met, Brooke Murphy barged into the room, looking seriously annoyed. "Okay, do you think you could lower the volume, just a little bit?" she asked. "I was having a really good dream and then a really good wake-up until someone started blasting music at eight o'clock in the morning. Hi, Ethan," she added to the half-demon.

"Hi, Brooke," Ethan said with a smile at her.

"Why did you start blasting music so early?" Brooke complained. "I mean, really, is it—" She spied the food. "Uh . . . what's with breaking out the good stuff? Usually, you just press some cereal on me."

Making a face at her, Susan threw up her hands. "So I was in a good mood this morning and I wanted to make everybody a nice breakfast. Is there really anything wrong with that?" she asked, glaring at them. Ethan only smiled at her as he sat down backwards in one of the chairs. "Why is everybody giving me grief about that?"

"Oh, no, honey, I wasn't making fun of you, I was just a little bit surprised. You can cook a nice breakfast any time you want," Brooke said with a smile. "Just why are you making so much?"

"I figure there's five of us, unless your good morning wake-up wasn't planning on staying for breakfast," Susan answered, looking towards the door, sensing a certain someone there. "Were you just gonna head home, Wy, or are you staying over?"

A red-faced Wyatt Halliwell appeared in the doorway. "Well, it does smell good," he acknowledged. "I suppose I can stay a little bit longer. But whose the fifth person?"

Susan cocked an eyebrow and looked past them, at the demon that was currently tied up in the kitchen. "Didn't you want some breakfast, Cassandra?" she asked sweetly. Ethan shook his head as he grinned at his sister, who ignored Susan. "It's very rude to ignore people, you know."

"Yeah, well, when I get out of this, I'm going to do more than be rude," Cassandra hissed at her. "You just wait, Dawson, I'm going to rip your veins out of your body, one by one, and then tear your spine out of your worthless body and hang it on my wall—"

Wyatt waved his hand, orbing the sock back into her mouth and Brooke sat down, looking slightly green. "Well, I'm not hungry any more," she said weakly.

"Ignore her, she's just trying to antagonise you," Ethan told her. "She never does any of the stuff she threatens to do."

"Yeah, but somebody want to explain to me why we're keeping her hostage instead of vanquishing her?" Susan asked, as she scooped the eggs onto some plates. Ethan got up to help her, setting them on the table before she placed the bacon in the middle of the table.

"Well, maybe because the vanquishing potion didn't work on her and if that didn't work, then I don't know what we're going to try," Brooke said matter-of-factly. Susan glanced up as she delicately placed some of the eggs into her mouth.

"What vanquishing potion?"

"The one that I found in your purse for Ethan," Brooke answered. Ethan started, then turned to look at Susan, a hurt look on his face.

"You had a vanquishing potion for me?"

Susan looked bewildered as she shook her head. "No, I didn't," she said, confused. "Ethan, if I couldn't figure out until yesterday how to vanquish your dad, then how did I figure out how to vanquish you?" Ethan paused, then accepted this as he went back to the breakfast. "Brooke, what vanquishing potion are you talking about?"

"It was in a glass vial that you had in this box," Brooke answered, pulling something out of her pocket and handing it to her. It was small and cylinder, like a lipstick carrying case. "I just figured that maybe you kept it around, just in case something . . . sorry, stop talking now."

Susan was fingering the box carefully, understanding filling through her eyes. "You used the potion in here on Cassandra?" she asked, looking at Brooke.

The nymph-witch nodded and Susan leaned back in her seat, setting down her fork as she began to laugh. Everyone else in the room looked at her as though she were crazy, but the witchlighter couldn't stop laughing, her eyes filled with mirth as tears began to leak out.

"Okay, what is so funny?" Brooke asked her.

"The potion that was in this wasn't a vanquishing potion," Susan told her, managing to control her laughter. "It was a power-stripping potion."

"What?" Ethan asked, sounding disbelieving and incredulous. "You actually kept that? I thought that you were going to get rid of it!" He didn't sound angry, though, just surprised.

"I was going to be, but . . . I couldn't. Every time that I tried to toss it, something just kept telling me that I might need it someday. But if Brooke used that potion on Cassandra . . ." she said, starting to smile as she looked at the demon, who had grown very still with growing horror.

"Well, I'll be," Ethan said, laughing. "What do you know, Cassie? You just got your worst nightmare."

"What do you mean?" Brooke demanded, confused as she looked towards her best friend and her boyfriend. "What nightmare? What do you mean, that potion was a power-stripping potion? If it was a power-stripping potion, then that would mean . . ."

"Yeah," Susan said, giggling at the predicament. "Congratulations, Cassandra. You're mortal now."

--

Chris closed the door behind him, trying to ignore the sounds of laughter coming from the apartment next door, but couldn't stop himself from peering into the kitchen window. A lump formed in his throat as he saw Susan, her eyes brighter than he had ever seen them, her smile wider than ever before, with her head thrown back in laughter. She was more beautiful than he had ever seen her and he knew that it was because she had been in the arms of the wrong man.

Anger rose through her as he saw Ethan sitting right next to her, his gaze filled with adoration and affection as he looked at Susan. Stopping himself from going into the apartment and vanquishing the half-demon where he sat, Chris stormed past the apartment, heading down to his car and slamming the door shut.

Fishing his keys out of his pocket, Chris drove them into the keyhole and turned on the car. As it roared to life, he backed up, maybe more forcibly than he usually did, but kept an eye out to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid like hit someone.

All the way to the restaurant, he couldn't get the image of Susan and Ethan together out of his mind. Why? Why couldn't it have been him to make her happy? He had thought that they were happy, that things were going great, and then suddenly, the second this half-demon came to town, his relationship with her was cut off and they were left to be happy together while he was completely miserable.

Chris released a sigh, unable to blame Susan or even Ethan for this. He could feel Susan slipping away from him for months, but couldn't pinpoint the source of her unhappiness.

But that didn't mean that he wasn't angry with either one of them.

Turning into the parking lot for Charmed, his mother's restaurant, Chris shut off the engine as he grabbed his apron and headed into the building. His mother was already directing people as he arrived. "Hi, Mom," he said tonelessly.

"Hi, honey," Piper Halliwell said with a smile as she hugged him. "Good to see you. What's wrong?" she asked, noticing at once his unhappy expression. "Is everything okay?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Chris muttered darkly. Piper looked worried, but didn't press the subject. "Where is everybody? Seems like it's only a half-crew."

"Yeah, about three people haven't shown up and four more called in sick," his mother answered with a sigh. "Although, to be honest, something has been going around. Phoebe's been saying that there's been an increase in the number of people in the hospitals."

"Any idea what's going on?" Chris asked, grateful to have something else to think about as he headed to the kitchen.

"Not yet, but keep an eye out, because I'm not entirely certain that this isn't demonic," Piper grumbled. Chris smiled at her as he headed into the back, not noticing that his mother had picked up the phone and was dialling a number, a worried expression on her face.

--

As Brooke and Wyatt left to leave her and Ethan alone to say goodbye, Susan just wished that she could fast-forward to the next week when she would be coming after Ethan to help him find the Amazons. "Are you sure that we're gonna be able to find them?" she asked anxiously.

"To be honest, I don't think it's going to be that hard," Ethan assured her, kissing her forehead. "Amazons tend to stick out, but demons tend to avoid them, especially if they're witches. If I find them, then I'll come back and get you quick as I can."

"Okay," Susan said softly, looking up into his eyes that seemed to capture her in them as they always did. "Just promise me that you'll be careful, all right?"

"I promise," Ethan assured her. "I'll see you in a couple of days." He paused. "I love you."

Susan's eyes filled with tears as she smiled up at him. "I love you, too," she whispered. She stood up to kiss him, her arms wrapping around his neck as their lips met, capturing each other in their first kiss since their reunion.

It was not a simple, chaste kiss, but rather one of possession, passion, emotion, and love that had been lying dormant for far too long. By the time that they had pulled apart, both of them were breathing heavily and Ethan pressed his head against hers.

"Keep a weather eye on the horizon," he whispered softly. Susan gave a small giggle at the words, recognising them from _Pirates of the Caribbean_. How many times had they watched that together? How many times had they fallen asleep to the sounds of clashing swords aboard a pirate ship in each other's arms in her home in Wisconsin?

"Just come back to me safely," she whispered. Ethan smiled and swooped down to kiss her again, his kiss just as passionate as before, filled with longing and fervour, before he shimmered away, leaving Susan alone in the kitchen.

Not a second passed that he had left did the phone ring and Susan jumped at the sound of it before walking over and picking it up. "Hello, Dawson/Murphy residence."

"Hello, Susan," Piper Halliwell's voice said on the other end. Susan blinked in surprise at her friendly tone. She hadn't expected to be exactly well liked in the Halliwell family right now. Unless nobody had told anybody the news just yet. "How are you?"

"I'm okay," Susan said, curious as to why she was calling. "Uh, not to seem rude, but why are you calling? Is everything okay?"

"That's what I was going to ask you," Piper answered. "Chris just came in a few minutes ago and he seemed a little . . . upset. Did something happen that I should know about or did you two have a fight or something?"

Susan sighed, not wanting to be the one to tell her this. "You should really talk to Chris about this, Mrs. Halliwell, or Wyatt, maybe."

"Well, I'm asking you," Piper said sternly. "And I would like to know what's going on with my son."

There was no arguing with her, Susan noted. She recognised that tone from her son and knew that when it was used, there was no point in trying to avoid the conversation. "Chris and I broke up," she finally said, her shoulders sagging in surrender.

"Oh!" Piper sounded surprised and perplexed. "Well, I'm sure that it was just a misunderstanding and you two can work it out."

"Mrs. Halliwell—"

"I mean, if you two fought about something, then you can make up. Couples fight all the time, it doesn't mean that it's over. Why don't you come over tomorrow night and see if Leo and I can help?"

Susan sighed. "No, there's nothing to work out, it's . . . it wasn't a fight, exactly," she said, trying to explain. "There's . . . there's somebody else. My old boyfriend came into the picture and . . ." She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I really have to go," she said just as a stabbing pain erupted in her head and she let out a gasp, the phone clattering to the floor as images flew through her mind.

There was a building with the sign **James'** on it and a bunch of Innocents going into the building. Then she saw a room inside with some potions and needles and stuff before moving to a street sign outside. Rose St. and Manny Dr.

"Susan!"

Brooke was knelt down beside her, shaking her quickly as the premonition ended. Her brown eyes were wide with fear and apprehension, staring down at her. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Premonition," Susan mumbled, struggling to get up. "It was a premonition, that's all."

"Since when do you get premonitions?" Wyatt asked. He was hanging up the phone, presumably after talking to his mother. Susan raised her head to look at him as Brooke helped her to her feet, navigating herself over to one of the seats.

"Since two days ago, before you guys tracked Ethan and me down," Susan muttered, rubbing her hand over her eyes. "It still gives me a backlash whenever it happens." She shook her head to clear it.

"Well, what did you see?" Wyatt asked her.

"Uh . . ." Susan tried to focus on the vision, to bring it back to the surface. "It was an old building . . . corner of Rose and Manny. It was called James', I think."

Wyatt raised his eyebrows before picking up his jacket. "All right, then, let's go check it out."

"What did you say to your mom?" Susan asked as she and Brooke followed him.

"Don't ask."

**--Opening Credits--**

Title song: "Chariot" by Gavin Degraw

Drew Fuller as Chris Halliwell

Wes Ramsey as Wyatt Halliwell

Michelle Trachtenberg as Susan Dawson

Anne Hathaway as Brooke Murphy

Hayden Christensen as Brandon James

and Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Connelly

--

**AN:** Okay, since I've successfully broken up Chris and Susan and put her with Ethan, I'm gonna let you guys make a decision, really because I'd like your input in regards to Chris' future relationship. Would you . . .

a) like me to bring Bianca back and put them back together or . . .

b) like me to bring in a new character for him to be with.

Just please, tell me in a review which one you'd prefer and the one with the most votes wins! Mind you, it's not going to be for awhile, because I'm planning on making Chris go completely crazy for a little bit, but I'd still like to know where I'm going with stories and you guys would really be helping me out. So please, cast your vote!


	2. Divide and Conquer

**Legacy: Power Thrust**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Two: Divide and Conquer

As he opened his locker, Bobby Connelly replaced the books from his third period just as he felt a hand brush against his and he looked up to see Patty Halliwell standing right next to him, a stealthy smile on her face as she slipped a note into his hand before walking away, glancing back at him only once before disappearing into the crowd.

Pretending to be looking for something in his locker, Bobby opened up the note and smoothed it out to read Patty's note.

_Meet me on the roof, I've got something that I want to talk to you about. _

_Patty_

Bobby looked up to where she had disappeared to, but she was already gone. With a sigh, he closed the locker and hoisted his bag onto his shoulder as he headed upstairs, sneaking into the unauthorised entrance to the roof, closing it behind him before he climbed upstairs, not even thinking about ignoring Patty's message, mostly because he couldn't stand to be away from her for much longer.

Patty was more than just a fellow student and a girl in his band; she was also secretly his girlfriend. They hadn't told anybody, because if his dad found out that he was seeing one of the Halliwells, then he'd only see it as productive if he was getting inside information on the brothers, his sister, and the nymph. And Bobby had no interest in using Patty. Besides, he was crazy about her.

Pushing open the door to the roof, Bobby stepped out into the sunlight, smiling as he saw Patty standing there, her gaze staring off into the distance as he walked towards her, moving around to face her and tilted her chin upwards so that he could kiss her.

But to his surprise, she pulled away, looking annoyed. "I said that I needed to talk to you, not that I wanted to make-out," she told him, glaring up at him.

"I can't kiss you hello?"

Patty shook her head furiously. "Did you know that your sister just broke up with my cousin so that she could be with her old boyfriend?" she demanded angrily. Bobby blinked in surprise; _that_ was what this was about? "Did you know?"

"Well . . . sort of. I knew that something was going on when Ethan came into town, but I didn't know what had happened exactly." Bobby sighed as he sat down on the wall, looking up at his girlfriend. "Patty, what's wrong? Why are you so mad at me?"

"Because you deliberately kept something from me, something that involves one of my family members?"

Bobby glared at her angrily. "I just found out about Ethan yesterday! And anyway, I didn't really know anything!"

Studying him carefully, Patty shook her head as she turned away. "You know, I was really starting to like Susan. I thought that she might actually be good for Chris. He'd really been hurting ever since we had to vanquish Bianca, but then she turns around and just crushes his heart like it was nothing! She has got to be one of the heartless people that I have ever met!"

"Hey!" Bobby stood up, angry. "Don't talk about my sister like that! I'll admit, maybe she didn't do the best thing concerning Chris, but you don't have any right to judge her like that! Neither one of us know exactly what happened between them and until we do, I don't think that you can honestly say that Susan was entirely in the wrong here!"

"So you're taking her side when you know full well that she just went and broke my cousin's heart intentionally? If that's the way that it goes, then I'm not sure that this is a good idea anymore. In fact, maybe we should just get everything out in the open here and now."

Bobby shook his head. "I'm not going to have a fight with you over Susan and Chris," he said. "I'm gonna go to class before one of us says something that we're going to regret later. I'll see you at band practice."

"Don't even bother," Patty retorted as she walked past him. "I don't know how I can even talk to you right now, so don't show up." Bobby opened his mouth to argue, but she cut across him. "I'm not going to have you messing up _my_ band, Connelly! You're out!"

"Do you really think that's fair?" Bobby demanded as he walked after her. Patty ignored him. "That's real mature, Patty. You're gonna hold me accountable for what's going on between Susan and Chris? Because she didn't realise until now that her heart belonged to another man?"

"Yeah, you know, I am," Patty replied, slamming the door behind her. Bobby stared after her, unable to believe what had just happened . . . what _had_ just happened? Did they just have a fight or did they just break up?

Slowly, he moved over to the wall, sinking down onto it just as he heard screaming coming from one of the science classrooms.

His head shot up and before Bobby even realised what he was doing, he had hurried down the steps and back into the school, racing towards the source of the screams. The moment that he entered the room, Bobby stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening at the scene that met his gaze.

In the middle of the room was a girl—Hannah Williams, if he remembered her name right—curled up on the floor, gripping her bangs as she screamed and whimpered in pain. Every time that someone tried to move forward to help her, however, a burst of telekinetic energy exploded from her, sending them flying backwards.

"What happened to her?" he asked one of the students, who shrugged, looking bewildered.

"Don't know, man. She's been out for a week, then today she shows up completely exhausted and suddenly started screaming and fell onto the floor and then that freaky thing happened." He shook his head. "I always thought that she was weird, but . . . jeez, this is beyond weird."

"Didn't almost the same thing happen last week to Clarence Hampton?" a blonde girl asked, wringing her hands fretfully. Bobby took a deep breath before he looked at Hannah, slowly edging towards her.

Her eyes flashed and he saw . . . power rage through them before he was flung off his feet, causing a few people to scream. Bobby shook his head as he got to his feet, moving towards her again.

"Connelly, what are you, crazy?" he heard someone yell as he was flung into a desk. "You're gonna get yourself killed!"

Ignoring them, Bobby made his way to Hannah, finally reaching her and he placed a hand on her shoulder, quieting her.

"Easy, Hannah," he said quietly. "Come on, I'm gonna try and get you some help. But I need you to come with me, all right?" She looked up at him, her brown eyes scared and pained. "You can trust me," he said, holding out his hand to her.

Slowly, she reached out and took his hand and the telekinetic energy slowly dissolved as he helped her out and led her out of the classroom, the students and teacher staring after them.

Meanwhile, Patty Halliwell moved out from where she had been watching him, wondering if she was judging him too harshly for crimes that he himself had not committed.

--

"This the place?" Wyatt asked Susan as they climbed out of his car and onto Rose Street, looking up at the building. She nodded as she looked around at their surroundings, obviously recognising them from her premonition. "Okay, so let's go check it out."

"Maybe one of us should stay out here, just in case something happens in there," Brooke said nervously.

Wyatt gave her a look. "Babe, as much as that sounds like a good idea, I'd rather have strength in numbers." Brooke looked unconvinced, but followed them up the steps and Wyatt opened the door gingerly, pushing it open carefully before looking around.

"Hello, anybody home?"

Susan followed them into the store, looking around carefully before she returned her attention to them. "It doesn't look like anybody's here," she observed, squatting down next to some old, dusty books.

"Spread out," Wyatt instructed, looking at the girls. "If you find anything that looks suspicious, say something." He wandered through the store, checking out the situation, looking through every book and box that he saw there, trying to find something, anything that would be related as to why Susan would have a vision there.

Just as he was about to head into the back room, he felt a hand on his shoulder and he whipped around to strike, but the man caught his hand easily before lowering it.

"Good afternoon, sir," he said pleasantly. "Is there anything that I might be able to help you with? We have an excellent selection of totems on the back wall there and also some crystal balls, if you're interested."

"Uh, no thanks, I'm just looking around," Wyatt said as Susan and Brooke appeared behind the clerk. "My, uh . . . sisters and I just got word of this place. Anything strange happen around here? Any weird people hang around here?"

"No, I have to say that you three are the strangest I have met as of late," the clerk answered with a smile. "Are you sure that I can interest you in anything? There are some mystical stones that I have in stock. . . ."

"No, that's—"

"Yes," Brooke interrupted. Susan and Wyatt stared at her. "I mean, it really couldn't hurt just to take a look, could it?"

Susan frowned at her. "But we are kind of on a tight schedule, remember?" she reminded her. "And—" She was cut off by her cell phone and she picked it up, looking down at the ID. "Uh . . . I got to take this. I'll see you guys outside."

As Susan disappeared from the store, Brooke smiled brightly at the clerk. "So, where were those stones that you were talking about?" she asked with genuine interest. The clerk smiled eerily as he motioned them over to the glass counter and Brooke followed him, Wyatt right behind her.

Meanwhile, outside Susan was on the phone. "Okay, slow down, Bobby, what are you talking about?" she asked. "What girl?"

_"Her name's Hannah Williams, I go to school with her,"_ her younger brother explained. _"She had some sort of episode earlier and she looked like she was in real pain. Every time that somebody tried to get near her, she was displaying some sort of telekinetic energy. And I heard somebody say it happened to another guy earlier in the week."_

"Telekinetic energy?" Susan repeated, shaking her head. "The only way that she could do that is if she was a witch, but that doesn't explain why it was hurting her."

_"Yeah, I know. Something's going on, Susan. Please, I really need your help. I can't take her to Dad's—"_

"Take her over to my apartment," Susan told him firmly. "I'll be over there shortly and we can take a look at her. There's a key in my car, you remember which one it is?"

_"Yeah."_

"Okay, the Book of Shadows is in my room on my desk. Start going through that and see if you can find anything that's related to what's going on. I'll try and see if Brooke and Wyatt can take care of this thing here."

_"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you bail on whatever it is that you're doing. I can do this on my own."_

Even over the phone line, Susan could hear the voice of a small child that just needed his big sister. "Don't even think about it, I'll be there, okay, buddy? There's three of us and I really think two will be able to handle it. Divide and conquer. I'll see you soon."

As she hung up, Susan headed into the store again, where Brooke was looking at some stones and Wyatt was standing nearby, still looking around stealthily. She motioned him over.

"Bobby needs my help with something," she muttered to him. "A friend of his is in some demonic trouble. You guys think you can handle things here?"

Wyatt paused, looking worried, but he nodded. "Yeah, we should be able to. Just call and check in later, okay? I have a feeling that we're gonna be sticking around here awhile. Something about that guy's giving me bad vibes."

"Oh, you too?" Susan cast a quick glance at the clerk. "Yeah, he's creepy. I think he might be our guy, but I could be wrong. Call me if you find anything, I'll keep my cell on."

"Be careful," Wyatt warned her. "And Sue?" She paused at the door. "Call Chris and tell him what we're doing. Somebody should know where we're at."

Susan sighed; it was the last thing that she wanted to do, but what choice did she really have? Wyatt was right, Chris should know where they were at in case something happened. "Okay," she said reluctantly as she headed out the door to find someplace safe to orb to the apartment.


	3. Demonic Powers

**Legacy: Power Thrust**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Three: Demonic Powers

Almost the second that she entered her apartment, Susan heard the sounds of pained whimpering coming from the kitchen, followed by Bobby's consoling voice, telling whoever it was that it was going to be okay. As she wandered into the kitchen, she found a scared looking teenage girl rocking back and forth in the chair.

"Hey, little brother," Susan said as she hugged Bobby affectionately. "So this is Hannah, right? Any idea what happened?"

"I haven't been able to get any idea of what happened out of her," Bobby admitted, running his hand through his brown hair. He looked worried and anxious. "But uh . . . why is Cassandra still here? Shouldn't you have vanquished her by now?"

"Can't really do that. Brooke used a power-stripping potion on her and she's mortal now. Like it or not, she's an Innocent." Susan shook her head, squatting down next to Hannah. "Did you find anything in the Book? Anything to find out what's causing this?"

"Nothing," Bobby sighed. He was sitting at the table, thumbing through the Book of Shadows. "Hannah, please, just calm down, we're gonna figure out what's causing this."

"Your dad hasn't been up to anything?" Susan asked him and he shook his head. "Great. At least with Peter, I know what I'm really up against. Okay, Hannah," she said, addressing the trembling girl. "Did anything strange happen before all this happened? Did you go somewhere new or meet some strange?" Hannah raised her head and her brown eyes were wide and fearful as she bobbed her head.

"Really? Great, what was it?" Bobby asked her, thrilled.

"My . . . my friends and I, we . . . we went to this place on the outskirts of town," Hannah whispered. "My friend Ashley heard about it from her older sister, said that they had some really cool stuff for sale in there. We just went to go check it out and they had these pretty gems. They were pretty cheap, too, so we each got one of them. Then this started happening." She buried her head into her knees and started sobbing uncontrollably.

"Where's this gem?" Susan asked, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Almost instantly, she was flung backwards, hitting the wall opposite and nearly knocking the wind out of her. Hannah went white and she tried to scramble out of the kitchen, desperate to escape, but Susan orbed in front of her, stopping her.

Hannah looked stunned. "What—what just happened?" she asked. "How did you do that?" She looked between Bobby and Susan. "Who are you people?"

"We're friends, Hannah," Bobby told her. "We have gifts that we use to help people. I know that this is a lot to take in, but you just have to trust that we're trying to help you. If you can just tell us everything that you know and let us help you, I think we can make the pain go away."

Looking sceptical, Hannah looked between Susan and Bobby, uncertain, but nodded slowly. "My mom wouldn't believe that I was really sick. I don't know why it's happening, but the past week, ever since we got those gems, I was in some serious pain. I could barely even stand up and not throw up. It was too much, some days. The room kept spinning around me and it felt like someone was shoving something into me, something I couldn't control. Then yesterday, it just started happening some of the time. Before, it was going on all the time, but yesterday, it just was doing it for brief intervals. Mom thought that I was well enough to go back to school and then . . . this started happening. Things started _moving_ around me. Every time I took a step, things began to move and people were thrown across the room. I tried to hold it all in, but then the pain came back and . . ." Hannah gave a shuddering breath and looked down, ashamed.

"Listen to me," Susan said, drawing the girl into a seat. "It's not your fault; you're not doing anything wrong. Someone is doing this to you and we're gonna do our best to fix it. Your friends . . . did they all start showing these symptoms too?"

"I think so. Mom said that Ashley and Lauren were both out, too, but Tracey was still in classes. I saw her today, though, and she looked like she was about to pass out from exhaustion. She wouldn't talk to me, though, said that it was too dangerous to be around her."

"Do you still have that gem?" Susan asked her. Hannah nodded and reached up around her neck, pulling out a cord and undoing the clasp. When the clasp was undone, she withdrew a long cord that had a pink gem on the end of it, glowing dangerously.

Taking the gem, Susan studied it carefully. She could feel power flowing from it, evil power. Demonic power. And it was flowing into Hannah. It was what was giving Hannah her powers.

Standing up, Susan headed into the kitchen, started flipping through the Book. She was sure that she had seen something like this somewhere in there before. "Come on, where is it?" she muttered as she flipped through the pages as Bobby and Hannah wandered back into the kitchen. "Where is it?"

"You think you've seen something like this before?" Bobby asked her.

"No, but I've seen something in the Book like this before," Susan answered, glancing up at him. "There was a demon that used gems to infuse mortals with powers, demonic powers. Trying to recruit an army or something. I forget the exact details, but this sounds like his work. Here it is," she added suddenly, stopping on the page. "That's right, his name's Geschenk. It's Dutch, it means 'gift'."

"So, basically, he thinks that he's giving mortals a gift?" Hannah asked bitterly. "Does he know how much pain it causes?"

"I think so, but it's not just giving you your powers, it's also burning away your mortality and turning you into a demon," Susan said slowly, her hand slowly reading down the page. Hannah looked horrified. "The gems are how he does it; they start to bond with your DNA. It takes a quarter's moon turn for it to take full affect. _When_ and _where _exactly did you get the gem?"

"Two days ago, after school," Hannah answered, her expression wide-eyed. "It was at this place at Rose and Manny called—"

"James," Susan said, running her hand over her eyes. Bobby frowned at Susan's reaction.

"How did you know that?"

"Because that's where I had the premonition of this morning," Susan replied, looking up at her brother. "And that's where Brooke and Wyatt are right now."

--

Brooke looked at the gems that the clerk had produced interestedly while Wyatt waited impatiently behind them, giving her exasperated looks. Just because they were in the middle of a mission didn't mean she couldn't stop and look, did it?

Apparently, from the looks that he was giving her. With a sigh, Brooke finally snatched up a blue gem that gleamed in her hand as she took it, handing it over to the clerk. "I'll take this one, I think," she said cheerfully, smiling at the clerk, who gave a dangerous, gleeful smile as he took it from her. "How much do I owe you?"

"For a pretty girl like you? I'm feeling extremely charitable today. I'll let you have it for five dollars."

"Five bucks?" Wyatt repeated suspiciously. "Seems like it's too good of a deal. You're sure you want to get that, Brooke?"

Giving her boyfriend a warning look, Brooke nodded happily. "I'm sure. There's this awesome top in my closet that I'm sure will go great with it. And if you're lucky, I might even model it for you."

Wyatt blushed and Brooke swiped out five bucks, handing it over to the clerk before he could say anything word, and hurried out of the store, the gem necklace in hand.

"Where'd Susan go, anyway?"

"Bobby called her. He needed her help with something. And anyway, I'm not entirely sure that you should've bought that necklace, Brooke."

"Why not?"

"Because Susan and I both get the feeling that that guy is the reason why she got a premonition here. The only reason people like us get visions is because there's something of the supernatural going on. How do we know that he's not a demon?"

"Because he would've attacked us by now if he were." Brooke shook her head. "Come on, let's not fight. Maybe Susan's vision was just somewhere close by, not necessarily this place."

"I'm not so sure, Susan said that she saw James' place in her vision." Wyatt gave in, though. "All right, let's check some of the other places and see if anything turns up. In this neighbourhood, though, I'm thinking that it might not be evil in the way we're thinking of."

"Tell me about it," Brooke muttered, taking a quick look around the dreary neighbourhood. "Next time Susan has a vision, remind me to tell her to have it at a mall or someplace." Sliding her arm around Wyatt's, the two witches walked together down the street.

Meanwhile, the clerk stepped outside for a moment, watching Wyatt and Brooke as they rounded the corner, his eyes flashing a demonic yellow. "So, witches have decided to come around here, have they? No matter, my gems will soon dispose of that little girl."

"You'd better hope so, James, if you hope to keep your life," Peter Connelly said coldly as he stepped around the corner.

"Have I ever failed you, my lord?"

"There's a first time for everything," Peter said smoothly. "And I will not tolerate any more failure this time."

"Sir, I just don't understand. Why go after the nymph-witch?"

"Because I have tried going after my daughter and time and time again, she has thwarted my attempts. And now, instead of being with a Halliwell witch, she is protected by a demon. I can't decide which is worse. So I'm going to try and rid myself of another one of prophesised witches. After all, it really doesn't matter which one I get rid of. One down ends the threat?"

"What if they find out what we're up to?"

"They won't," Peter said smoothly. "Not until it's too late. After all, those demonic powers work on both witches and mortals. So when they finally wedge themselves into Miss Murphy, then she'll embrace the darkness. And if she fights for evil, then she'll go after her friends. Once she's killed them, then we can get rid of her."

--

Chris tossed a steak onto the grill, watching as it smoked and fried, irritation flooding through him as he saw his mother walk into the kitchen, regarding him carefully. The other kitchen help were already working their magic on the customers that were waiting for their food.

"Honey, you know, maybe you should take a few days off," she said kindly as she watched him toss a few more steaks, rather ferociously onto the grill, not caring if he ruined them or not.

"I'm fine."

"Those steaks that you're making say otherwise," Piper told him. Chris looked and noticed the medium well steak he was cooking was now burned black. "Candace? Can you take over for a little bit? I need to talk to my son about something."

Candace nodded as Piper led Chris out of the room.

"Okay, look, sit down, sweetie," Piper instructed as she led him out to the bar. "You know that I know that you're a grown man, but I am still your mother and I worry about you. So I know that there's something going on. And I'm pretty sure that I know what it is."

Chris looked at his mother, sighing. "Trust me, Mom, there's no way that you could know what's bothering me. Not that anything is," he added quickly to cover up his slip.

"Uh-huh. Well, I'd say that whatever's bothering you, it's about Susan," Piper said and he stilled, astonished at how well his mother could read him. Was he really that obvious? "Because I called her earlier and she told me that you guys split up."

"What?!" Chris exclaimed, causing a few customers to stare. "Why would you call her?"

"Because as far as I knew, she was your girlfriend and therefore the best choice besides your brother to get information on what was wrong," Piper said gently. "She didn't want to tell me, Chris. In fact, she told me that it was better if I asked you or Wyatt."

"Did she tell you why?" Chris spat.

Piper sighed. "Well, sort of. She said that an old flame of hers came into the picture, but I didn't really get any of the details."

Chris frowned. "Did she tell you that he's half-demon?" he asked, keeping his voice low so nobody would hear him. Piper looked shocked at his confession. "Yeah, her new boyfriend is a demon. Not only that, but he was actually sent to Wisconsin to kill her and her brother. She sure knows how to pick them, huh?"

For a moment, his mother just looked at him. "So, are you upset about the fact that you lost her to a demon or she picked this guy over you or that she'd rather be with the bad boy?" she asked calmly. Chris sighed, shaking his head as he stared ahead of him. "Or is it all three?"

Before Chris could reply, they heard screaming coming from the kitchen and both mother and son jumped into action, rushing to the kitchen as two of the kitchen helpers ran out, one of them on fire. His friend was patting out the flames as the door swung open and Chris ran inside, his mother right behind him, stopping in his tracks.

Candace was lying in the middle of the kitchen, curled up in a ball and whimpering and screaming loudly as flames emitted from her, flying every which way and lighting anything it touched.

Flicking her wrists, Piper hurried forward to inspect the girl as Chris stood dead in his tracks. "What the heck is going on?" he demanded. "What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know," Piper said, shaking her head as she looked up at him. "But she was throwing fireballs. So . . ."

"She's a demon," Chris said grimly.

Piper frowned. "I'm not so sure, sweetie. I mean, if she _was_ a demon, then she wouldn't be reacting like this." She gestured at Candace's feral position, her eyes wild.

"Then what is going on?"

"Not a clue."


	4. Running Out of Time

**Legacy: Power Thrust**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Four: Running Out of Time

Susan whirled around the corner, turning the wheel as fast as she could as she managed to drive as fast as she could without breaking any laws. Hannah was curled up in the back seat, whimpering slightly while Bobby was right next to her, his cell against his ear.

"Tell me that you're getting through," she said as she came to a stop sign two blocks away from James'.

"No," Bobby said impatiently. "I've tried Brooke's cell, Wyatt's, both your apartment and the guys', but there's nothing." He swore aloud, causing Susan to give him a warning look. "Sorry, it's just . . . where are they? If they're in there with that demon . . ."

"Brooke's been up against plenty of demons on her own, she should be okay. And if she's not . . . she's got Wyatt with her." Susan sighed, running her fingers through her hair before looking sideways at her brother. "Don't you think Peter's gonna notice when you went missing from school?"

"He never does," Bobby said, shrugging. "I don't skip that much," he added quickly upon seeing her look. "Just sometimes . . . it's unavoidable. And I have to go clean up one of Dad's messes." He paused, looking distracted. "Besides, I really don't want to be there right now."

Susan glanced at the time. "Isn't right now supposed to be lunch, the best part of high school experience?" she joked.

Bobby made a brief smile. "Usually," he said softly. "Recently, it's been great, ever since I . . . since I joined Patty's band." Susan glanced sideways at him, worried about what had happened and secretly thrilled to have the opportunity to bond with her brother. "And uh . . . well, I've actually made some real friends for once. And a little bit more," he added, his face going red.

"Patty?" Susan guessed. Chris and Wyatt's cousin had been eyeing her brother the couple of times that she'd seen them together and it was no great surprise that they would get together. "Are you two . . .?"

"We were," Bobby said quietly, looking down. "Obviously, we can't tell anybody, because if word got around to Dad that I was dating a Halliwell, then . . . you know what he'd do." Susan nodded. "But I really like her, Susan. She's . . . she's fun and bright and . . . and when she looks at me . . . it just makes me feel so . . ."

"Light," Susan supplied. "Like you can just take one step and you'll be floating away into the clouds like a balloon. And if you look away from her, then you'll come crashing down to the reality that is life." Susan smiled at his dubious expression. "That's how I feel with Ethan. He and I . . . we share a bond that's closer than friends and lovers. It's hard to describe." For a moment, Susan let her thoughts drift to her boyfriend before returning her attention to her brother. "So what happened? What's going on with you and Patty?"

Catching his expression, Susan frowned as he averted his gaze. "Nothing, it doesn't matter. We've got other stuff to focus on."

"Bobby . . ." Susan looked at him kindly. "I know that we're still figuring out this whole sibling relationship, but I am your sister and you can talk to me about stuff."

Her brother looked at her, a small smile spreading across his face before it vanished. "Yeah, but . . . I don't want you to feel guilty about this, because it's not your fault," he said uncomfortably. "I mean, you've got your own life to live and you shouldn't have to worry about your choices affecting me."

Susan was bewildered; what was he going on about? "Okay, rewind, why would I be feeling guilty about problems with you and Patty? Bobby, come on, just tell me," she prompted at his hesitation.

"Well . . . Patty kind of broke things off this morning," he said slowly and uncertainly. "More than that, she . . . kicked me out of the band." Susan looked at him in shock.

"Why?"

Bobby looked down. "Well . . . she found out that you broke up with Chris to be with Ethan and . . . she got mad at me when I took your side. Said that I was putting you before her and her family. Actually, she was pretty upset before we even started talking."

"Wait a minute, hold on," Susan said, frowning. "Patty broke up with you because I broke up with Chris? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

"Tell me about it," Bobby mumbled, looking out the window. "I really hate this, Sue."

"I know, I can tell."

Her brother looked around at her, tears in his eyes. "I like her," he said, almost brokenly. "She's the one thing in my scary, messed up world that makes sense to me. It's like . . . it's like you said, I feel light when I'm with her. I don't feel the darkness."

Susan swallowed as she heard her brother's confession. He loved her, she realised, her heart tightening in her chest. Maybe he didn't realise it just yet, maybe it wasn't fully developed, but it was there. And she sure wasn't going to let Patty slip away from him, not when it was clear that they truly cared about one another. When all of this was over and done with, she was going to go over and talk to Patty.

"There's Wyatt and Brooke," Bobby said suddenly, interrupting her thoughts and she looked to see where he was indicating, spotting the couple rounding the corner. And even from the distance, she could tell that something wasn't right.

Something was happening with Brooke. She could feel it, deep within her psyche. "Do you feel that?" she whispered, keeping her gaze on the couple.

"Yeah," Bobby whispered, his eyes glued on Brooke and Wyatt. "What is that?" he wanted to know.

"It's almost time!" Hannah suddenly shrieked, startling both of them. Susan looked behind her at the girl, who was gripping her hair tightly. There was a dark and sinister glint in her eyes. "Almost time . . . to go. Almost time to go. Can't be late. Have to go join the Master." Her smile was delirious and twisted. "Almost time . . ."

"Time for what?" Bobby asked, looking at Hannah in alarm. Susan slowly turned around in her seat, realising what was happening. The evil was grabbing Hannah and pulling it tighter into its leash. Soon, the demon that was prying upon the innocent girl would be on the surface and they'd have to stop it from killing all of them, possibly from killing them.

"Time . . . for the raising."

--

Brandon James orbed into his charge's apartment, looking around for Susan. He was really hoping that Brooke wasn't here, because to be honest, he wasn't really sure that he could deal with seeing her right now. "Susan?" he called, peering carefully around the door to her bedroom, but she wasn't there. Maybe she was at school, he thought before sensing for her.

He frowned when he realised that he couldn't sense her; she was being blocked by demonic energy. "Great," he muttered as he walked into the kitchen, shaking his head as he saw Cassandra there, bound and gagged. "So, they decided to leave you alone here, huh? That's awfully nice of them." Reaching over, he pulled the gag out of her mouth, causing her to cough. "Do you know where they went?"

"Why would I want to tell you that?"

"Gee, I don't know, maybe because you're a prisoner?" Brandon asked mockingly. "Look, Susan's got this whole thing about saving people, but if you ask me, I don't think, even as a mortal, you're worth it. And I've got some friends in high places, so unless you want to spend the rest of your mortal life in prison or an asylum and die there, I'd really be nice if I were you. Now, where did the girls go?"

Cassandra scowled, narrowing her eyes. "They went to go check out this place that Dawson saw in her premonition," she said coldly. Brandon nodded, waiting. "Then she came back here with the Connelly boy, trying to help a friend who was possessing demonic powers. Turns out they were connected, so they went to go warn Halliwell and Murphy about it."

"Do you know where?"

"Rose and Manny, it's called James'."

"Good." Brandon stood up, folding his arms across his chest. "Now was that really so hard?" He debated whether or not to gag her, but decided that it was probably better if he did; after all, if she started shouting and people found her here, Susan and Brooke could get in a lot of trouble.

But before he could gag her again, Cassandra spoke. "How long do expect to keep up the charade, Whitelighter? Even that little witch isn't going to fall for the illusion forever. Pretty soon, she's going to figure it out. In fact, I'm sure that she already suspects some of the truth."

Brandon's blood went cold. "What are you talking about?"

Cassandra's lips twitched. "I think you know what I'm talking about . . . Ryan," she said and her brown eyes gleamed with triumph when he shifted uncomfortably. "Now, don't be so shy, Dawson. You and I had quite the fling once."

"There was no fling," Brandon retorted before he could stop himself. "You tried to seduce me so you could get a clear shot at my sister and her boyfriend. But it didn't exactly work when your brother figured out what you were up to."

"You can call it whatever you want, but the fact is that it did happen," Cassandra said coolly. "And anyway, you're not going to be able to keep the truth from your sister forever. Do you really want her to find out the truth from some demons or that father of yours?"

"Peter doesn't know anything."

"True. He's remained blissfully ignorant about your true relationship with his goody-two-shoes daughter. But what if he heard it from somewhere and decided to inform Susan of that fact?"

"I'll deal."

Cassandra laughed. "You witches, always fighting the good fight and trying to protect the ones you love. That's why evil always gains the upper hand, you know, because if you can protect the ones you love by making a sacrifice, then you'd do it an instant. Us, on the hand, we would just as soon sacrifice others than do it ourselves."

Brandon chose to say nothing as he looked at her. "If you breathe a word of this to Susan or Peter, I swear that no witch, no Elder, not even the Powers that Be themselves are going to be able to protect you from my wrath."

For a moment, Whitelighter and ex-demon looked at each other, neither one blinking. Then Cassandra smiled.

"Oh, finally," she said with a chuckle. "You are almost getting to the point where you're _worth_ killing. Maybe I'll get to do it myself. You know that you won't be able to keep me locked up here forever. Sooner or later, I'm going to break free. Hey, maybe I'll go have a chat with Daddy and inform him of what his little boys and girl have been up to. Let him know all of the dirty secrets that go on around here."

"You won't," Brandon said sharply. "Why would you tell him anything that goes on around here? It would give him an upper hand and you'd have nowhere to climb in the demonic world."

Cassandra looked smug. "I think you know me better than that, lover."

Slowly, Brandon looked at her, trying to figure out what she meant, but then it dawned on him. "You want to replace Bobby as his second in command, be his heir when the time comes for it."

"Bingo," Cassandra said, looking triumphant. "And we finally have a winner. You're not as dumb as you pretend, are you, Ryan?"

"Well, you're gonna have to get out of here first," Brandon pointed out, folding his arms across his chest. "You're just lucky that I have to go save my sister, otherwise we'd be having an even longer chat and I'll be working on someplace to send you. Somewhere where you can't contact my father."

Just as he was about to orb out, the ex-demon stopped him. "I wouldn't bother if I were you, lover," she commented. "You're going to be too late anyway. She's walking straight into a trap. The gems in that place are cursed, filled with demonic energy that bond with a person's DNA. And if she gets a hold of one of them, then the only way to break the bond is to destroy the person."

Brandon stilled. "You're saying that I'm gonna have to kill my own sister? Not a chance. We can just vanquish the demon."

"It won't work. If you vanquish him, then they're going to stay that way. There's no way to stop the energy from spreading once they've started to bond."

Praying very much that she was wrong and praying even more than she hadn't been joined with a gem, Brandon orbed out to Rose and Manny, searching desperately for the girl who thought that he was only her Whitelighter.


	5. Calling in for Help

**Legacy: Power Thrust**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Five: Calling in for Help

"Brooke, where are we going?" Wyatt asked his girlfriend as they rounded the corner. They had been around this block about twelve times already and there wasn't anything even remotely out of the ordinary. It was more of the normal and less of the para that usually came when dealing with demonic activity. In fact, the only thing that they had come across was the place Susan had seen in her vision, which, personally, Wyatt thought that they should be focusing their attention on.

"We're trying to find the demon that Susan saw in her vision," Brooke reminded him, tossing her brown hair back before giving him the smile that he so adored. "Of course, if you'd rather be doing something else . . ." She drew him into a kiss that left him breathless. "I think that could be fun too."

"Okay, not that I'm not enjoying myself, but we really need to go hunt down the bad guys," Wyatt said with great reluctance, pulling her arms away from him. "Come on, I think we should give Susan a call and see if she saw anything else that could be helpful." He pulled out his cell and frowned. "Great, I got no reception. You got anything?"

"Nope," Brooke answered, looking down at her cell. "Okay, fine, let's go back to James' and see if we can find anything else. I mean, both you and Susan said that you felt something, some dark entity? We should go give it one last once-over before we head back."

Wyatt considered her; she was acting a little bit weird, but there wasn't anything odd in her brown eyes. And she certainly wasn't acting un-Brooke, so maybe it was just his imagination that something was going on. Or maybe it was just the stress of finals coming up. Not everything was necessarily demonic, even in their lives.

"All right," he finally said. "We'll head back there and see if we can come up with anything, but please, can we do some actually investigating and not just pretending to investigate and actually shopping?"

Brooke stuck her tongue out at him, but nodded as she took his hand, heading down the street to James'. As they walked, Wyatt noticed Susan's car sitting in the opposite street and she was turned around, talking to someone in the backseat.

Just as he was about to say as much to Brooke, she pushed him into the store, where a different clerk was in there this time and gave them a crooked grin. "Anything I can help you kids with?"

Although Wyatt opened his mouth to start interrogating the woman, his cell phone rang. Pulling himself away from the conversation as Brooke started conversing with her, he flipped open his phone and answered it.

"Hello?"

_"Wy, it's Susan, we're parked right outside James'. We saw you and Brooke go in. Are you guys okay?"_ Susan asked him, her voice frantic, on edge.

"Yeah, we're both fine. Listen, we've . . . been trying to find your client, but they're nowhere around. Did you happen to remember anything that you missed from that call of yours earlier?" Wyatt hoped that she was reading between the lines of his words.

_"No, forget about the vision, you guys need to get out of there, now," _Susan said urgently. _"Bobby's friend, the one that he called me about, got a gem from that store two days ago and she's been developing some demonic powers. The demon that runs this place sells gems to innocents and then the gems start to form with their DNA. Once they're bonded, their bodies start to break down, turning them into a demon. Did either of you buy any gems?" _

"Brooke did," Wyatt confirmed, a growing dread filling in the pit of his stomach as he recalled her strange behaviour. "Wait a minute, would this work on . . . our kind of people?"

_"I don't know, but I think so. Since witches' bodies are more capable of harnessing powers, they'd be more equipped to deal with it. I think that it'd just take a shorter time of turning them into a demon. Wyatt, how long ago did Brooke get the gem?"_

"About fifteen minutes after you left," Wyatt whispered, scared. If what Susan was saying was true, then Brooke . . . "Sue, tell me that there's an antidote to this."

_"There wasn't one in the Book, but maybe if we vanquish the demon, then it'll all go away. Do you think you can come up with a spell?"_

"Maybe," Wyatt muttered, keeping an eye on Brooke, who was still talking with the woman. Both had serious expressions on their faces. "Why are they doing this?"

_"We don't know how many people they've sold gems to, Wyatt. But I'd say that there's a definite possibility that hundreds or more people have been infected by this thing. So—"_

"Someone's raising an army," Wyatt breathed.

_"Yeah, that was my guess, too. And that's not everything, not by a long shot. Hannah, Bobby's friend, has been getting worse and the demon's starting to take over. And she said something about it's almost time, something called the raising. Any idea what she meant by that?" _

"The raising?" Wyatt repeated, his forehead creasing, unaware that Brooke and the woman had stilled upon hearing his words. "No, it doesn't sound familiar. Listen, I think you guys should head back and find something to stop this thing, find out what it is. I'll grab Brooke and we'll—"

Seeing a glint, Wyatt spun just in time to narrowly avoid being struck with an axe by Brooke.

_"Wyatt?" _Susan sounded alarmed. _"What was that? What's happening?"_

"Susan, get Chris! Do it now!" he ordered before flipping his phone shut, conjuring an energy ball to throw at Brooke, diving sideways to avoid the earthquake that she had created, thrown at him. Before he could launch the attack, however, the back of his head exploded in pain. The last thing that he saw before he blacked out was the woman standing in front of him with a bat in her hands, grinning wildly.

--

"Wyatt?!" Susan yelled into the phone. After the hundredth time, she had finally managed to get through, but he had just hastily told her to get his brother before the call had been disconnected. "Wyatt! Great," she said, hanging up and looking across the street. "Come on, we're going in there and we're gonna kill this demon."

"I'm in," Bobby said brightly just as a figure appeared seemingly out of nowhere next to them, causing brother and sister to scream in surprise.

"Brandon!" Susan exploded, blue eyes like daggers. "Don't _do_ that! You're not supposed to sneak up on people in these parts of town." Still breathing heavier than usual, she looked at her Whitelighter. "What are you doing here? I thought you said the Elders called you up for something important."

"They did, but I got done with it, couldn't find you, Cassandra told me where you might be," Brandon said, shrugging. Both Susan and Bobby stared at him, eyebrows raised. "I can be very convincing when I want to be. So what's going on? And tell me that you didn't get infected," he added.

"No, she did," Susan said, jerking her head towards the backseat. "And so did Brooke. Wyatt's in there with her and probably got himself captured. So come on, we're gonna go vanquish this guy before he does any more damage."

"Hold it there, Susie, you're not going to kill this guy," Brandon ordered, grabbing her arm as she climbed out of the car.

"Oh, really? And give me one good reason why I shouldn't?"

"Because according to Cassandra, if you vanquish him, we'll never be able to break the spell on Brooke or your friend," he added, nodding at Hannah.

"And you believed her?"

"Can we really afford to take the chance not to?" Brandon countered. Susan sighed, sagging her shoulders, looking back at the store before looking to Hannah, to her brother, and finally coming back to her Whitelighter.

"All right," she finally gave in. "Brandon, take Bobby and Hannah back to the apartment, find some way to break the spell, I don't care how you do it. I'll meet up with you in a bit."

"Where are you going?" Brandon asked as she passed her keys to him and walked away from the car.

"The last thing that I want to do, but is unfortunately unavoidable at the moment," Susan answered, looking back at him, causing Bobby and Brandon to look at each other in bewilderment before returning their gazes to her. "I'm gonna go talk to an old boyfriend."

--

"I don't believe this, it's happening everywhere," Piper said as she and Chris walked into the manor. Chris shook his head at his cell, unable to get through to his brother. "Wyatt's still not answering his phone? What does he even have it for?"

"So he has an excuse when he can't get to the clinic, I think. He can just blame it on bad reception," Chris answered, rolling his eyes. "So, what are we thinking here? Spell, demonic possession?"

"Maybe both," Piper answered, shaking her head. "All I know is that if we don't stop this soon, pretty soon the entire city's going to be infected by what's going on. I'm going to call Phoebe and see what she knows, why don't you go upstairs and check the Book?"

Chris nodded as his mother disappeared into the kitchen, already dialling Phoebe's number when the doorbell rang. With a sigh, he walked over to the door, opening it up.

"What do you want?" he demanded upon seeing Susan standing on the front porch. She walked past him into the foyer.

"We need to talk."

"You know, we really don't," Chris retorted as he slammed the door behind him, glaring at his ex-girlfriend. "And what gives you the right to come around here and start giving orders?"

Before she could even say anything, Piper came back into the foyer, already talking. "Okay, I talked to Phoebe and she gave me everything that she knew, but I'm still not sure what—oh, Susan," she said with a smile towards the witchlighter. "What a pleasant surprise. What brings you by?"

"The same thing that I think you guys are looking for," Susan answered. "Let me guess, somebody at the restaurant collapsed, started exhibiting powers that was overloading them?" Both Piper and Chris looked at her, then at each other and back again. "Yeah, it's a demon who uses these gems on mortals to give them powers. It destroys their mortality and forces a demon into them. Takes a quarter moon's turn to complete it."

"And let me guess," Chris said mockingly. "Your dad's behind it." Susan opened her mouth to speak. "Then forget it. I told you, I'm not fighting your battle anymore."

"As far as we know, my father has nothing to do with this, for once," Susan retorted. "And are you really gonna let innocents die and become demons just because you're angry with me?"

Chris said nothing, feeling his mother's curious gaze on him. He walked past Susan and sat down at the kitchen table.

"You're being ridiculous, you know that?" Susan demanded. "Has it even once occurred to you that even if you don't want to fight this battle, it's not gonna stop Peter from coming after you? Have you thought about that? Have you even considered that this isn't just about you? Maybe it's about the fate of the world? We have no idea what's coming, Chris. We don't know anything about this demon we're supposed to face. And maybe you haven't taken a look around, but the demonic activity is stronger than it's been in twenty years.

"For the first time since the Source was in charge, demons are uniting under a common leader. And you know what the scariest part is? That leader happens to be my father! The guy who impregnated my mother with my brother and me and took off is now pretty much the Source of All Evil and trying to kill all of us! And you're acting like you want to condemn all of us to death or worse. You're acting like you want the world to end.

"I get that you're angry with me, all right? I get that and I accept it, because I know that I treated you horrible. But innocent people do not deserve to die just because you're mad at me! You can be as angry as you want with me, but guess what? We have to work together, because it's our job to protect the innocent, just as our parents did before us. So you need to get on board, because we need you."

"Why?" Chris asked bitterly, not looking up at her. "Why should I care about any of this? Why should I bother helping when all it gets is the person I care about taken away from me?"

Piper made some noise at that, but when he looked at her, his mother was looking at Susan with something of respect in her eyes which turned to horror at Susan's next words.

"Because Brooke got infected by these gems this morning and she took your brother back to the store where they're selling them." Chris's eyes flew upwards to meet Susan's blue gaze. "And that was the last time that I heard from him."

Slowly, Chris looked towards his mother, whose mouth was open in horror, and instantly was on his feet, heading towards the attic. "What's the demon's name?" he asked sharply.

"Geschenk," Susan replied as the trio walked into the attic. "Brandon and Bobby are at the apartment, along with one of the infected, trying to find a cure, but there's also something called 'the raising' that's coming. We're not sure what it is," she added as Chris flipped through the Book. "There was anything in my _Book of Shadows_ about it, or how to cure someone once they're being infected with the demonic powers. Brooke's moving along much faster than everybody else, but she's a witch, so her body's more equipped to dealing with powers than mortals."

"And you have no idea what this raising is?" Piper asked as Chris's hands stilled.

"It's the completion of an army," Chris replied. Piper and Susan looked at him. "The raising is all of the mortals who have been infected come completely into their powers and fall under the dominion of Geschenk. They're supposed to be soldiers of darkness kind of thing. Warriors for when the final battle comes between good and evil. Also," he added, "he specialises in taking those that would've become warriors for the Powers that Be."

"Warriors for the Powers," Susan repeated. "You're kidding."

"No," Chris said distractedly as he scanned the page. "Other than that, it's pretty much everything that you mentioned, except . . ." His voice trailed off. "There's a vanquish."

"Great! What is it, spell or potion?"

"Neither," Chris answered, causing both of the women to stare at him and he looked up. "We have to destroy his power centre."

Susan sighed. "Great."


	6. Destroying the Power Centre

**Legacy: Power Thrust**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Six: Destroying the Power Centre

"So," Chris commented as they climbed the stairs of the apartment building, "where's your boyfriend at, anyway?" He kept his tone civil, but she detected the hidden bitterness underneath it.

"He's out of town, trying to find Neasa's family," Susan said, ignoring the anger that was radiating from him. Even without being an empath, she could sense it. "You remember, the witch that his dad had captive."

Chris chose not to comment on this as she pushed open the door to her apartment, wishing that she could get this day over with. This was just one of those days that she would've rather stayed in bed all day than deal with this. Closing the door behind her, Susan called out, "Brandon? Bobby? You here?"

"Kitchen!" Brandon called. Susan wandered into the kitchen, Chris trailing her, to find the two sitting at the table going through various books. "Okay, there's nothing on how to vanquish this guy without the infected becoming permanent, nothing on how to get the powers out, and nothing on how to destroy the gems." He shut the Book of Shadows, rubbing his forehead tiredly. "Hi, Chris."

"Hi," the witchlighter returned as he moved to take a seat at the kitchen table. "Why is she still here?" he asked, directing his attention to Cassandra.

"She's mortal," Susan, Brandon, and Bobby all said at the same time.

"Mortal?" he echoed.

"It's a long story," Susan said with a sigh.

"Brooke used a power-stripping potion on her," Bobby offered.

Susan shrugged at Chris's incredulous stare. "Apparently not that long," she admitted. "Okay, guys, the only way that we're going to be able to vanquish Geschenk and strip the infected of the demon is by destroying his power centre. Unfortunately, we have no idea what that is, so we're gonna have to go down there and find him before we can figure out how to vanquish him."

"Power centre?" Bobby repeated, raising his eyebrows. "It's usually a necklace or an amulet. But what about Hannah? We can't just leave her alone here. There's no telling what she might do."

"Which is why you're staying here with baby-sitting duty," Susan answered. Bobby made a face at her. "There's some potions in that cabinet there if something happens, but nothing is gonna happen. Don't untie Cassandra, I'm not ready to trust her without those bonds just yet." Cassandra, who was still gagged, rolled her eyes. "We'll be back as soon as we can. Stay safe, all right."

She hugged her brother tightly before stepping away and looked towards Chris and Brandon. "Let's go."

All three of them orbed out, vanishing in a swirl of white lights and reappearing in the shop that Susan had been in that morning with Wyatt and Brooke. "You guys see anything?" Brandon asked as they moved through the store. "It looks deserted."

Chris was moving through the shop, his green eyes searching the shop, as if trying to sense something. "I can sense Wyatt," he said suddenly. Susan looked around at him. "But I can't hear him; he's unconscious."

"Unconscious is good," Susan said, relieved. "At least that means that they haven't killed him yet." Chris glanced at her, slightly affronted, but nodded, conceding her point. "But if he's here, then . . . where is he?" She watched as Chris stepped onto a rug lying on the ground, his eyes closed as he tried sensing for his brother.

"It's somewhere around here," he muttered. "I can't get a lock on it, though. It's like he's—"

"Underneath us," Susan replied. Chris blinked and looked around at her. "Move."

"What?"

"Move." She walked over as Chris moved away from the rug and she pushed it aside, revealing a trapdoor. "Of course. It's always a trapdoor. Can't the bad guys ever think of anything different?"

"That would mean they'd have to have brains," Brandon muttered as he and Chris helped her push it up, exposing a staircase going down. "Well, anybody want to go first?"

"I'll go," Susan said, moving ahead of the boys and climbing down the stairs. After a quick glance at each other, Chris and Brandon followed her, slowly slipping through the staircase, climbing down to an underground cavern, where there were hundreds of teenagers, training with their newly acquired demonic powers.

"They must've already been turned," Chris whispered, looking around at the kids. "What kind of sicko would do something like this?"

"I think that's him there," Brandon whispered, pointing. "Look, there's Brooke and Wyatt."

Sure enough, over by the same clerk that Susan had met that morning when they'd been investigating, were their friends. Wyatt was chained to a wall, the back of his head bloody and his shirt torn and red. Susan looked towards Brooke, who had a wicked smile on her face that she swore that she could've pulled it off of Peter Connelly.

She whispered something to Geschenk, who raised his eyebrows in question before nodding. "My children, we have a pleasant surprise amongst us," he announced. All of the teenagers turned towards him expectantly. "Visitors. And not just any visitors, but witches. A son of one of the Charmed Ones, a Whitelighter, and a Cromwell witch. How wonderful for you to join us here." He threw his head back in laughter as the teenagers' eyes flickered towards them, their eyes gleaming a demonic amber.

"We have to get out of here," Brandon said urgently. Chris nodded in agreement, but Susan ignored them, just moved down the staircase. "Susan, are you out of your mind? We've got to get out of here!"

"I'm not leaving without them," Susan said stubbornly. "Go if you want to, but I'm staying here." Brandon groaned.

"Why does she always have to be so stubborn?" he whispered, looking skyward before hurrying after his charge. After a minute, Chris raced after the two as he caught the inner awakening of his brother's mind through their telepathy.

_Wy? You okay?_

_Chris?_ His brother's mind-voice was muddled and distorted. _Glad to hear you, bro. . . . You have no idea how good it is to hear from you. _

_Yeah, you too. We need to get out of here._

_Unfortunately, I'm in no position to run anywhere right and even if I was, I'm not leaving here without Brooke. _Bewildered as to why his brother would still be dating her when she had been going around behind his back with Brandon, Chris shook his head. _And we've got to vanquish this guy before he traps these kids for all eternity in his net. _

_Tell me about it, but the only way to do that is to destroy his power centre and we don't know what that is. _

_I do. _

_What is it? _

_Just leave it to me. _

Chris wanted to yell at his brother, but Wyatt cut off the telepathic connection between them before he could say anything and he rushed to help Susan as he and Brandon were fighting off the demon children.

Wyatt shook his head to clear it, pretending that it was still out of it as he telekinetically retrieved a hairpin from Brooke. Thankfully it went unnoticed as it flew to his hand and he went to breaking the cuffs open. After a few slow and tense moments, the cuffs clicked open and the chains dropped to the ground, alerting the attention of both the demon and Brooke, who shrieked in surprise as he moved forward, his muscles shouting in protest.

"Sorry about this, babe," he told her, punching her and knocking her unconscious. "You'll thank me later."

Geschenk laughed as the witchlighter approached him. "You think you can save her, boy? If you vanquish me, she's going to stay like that for all eternity."

"Really? Then what about destroying your power centre?"

The demonic eyes went wide with alarm as Wyatt froze him. It wasn't going to hold for very long, but it was enough to grab the chain that hung around his neck and broke it, snatching the gem that was glowing brightly with evil energy.

Snatching up a rock, Wyatt poised it above the gem and brought it down, smashing it to bits.

That was all it took. The teenagers suddenly stopped attacking Susan, Brandon, and Chris and looked around at each other in confusion. The four supernatural beings looked at each other before Susan pushed through the crowd, squatting beside Brooke.

"She gonna be okay?" she asked, looking at Wyatt expectantly. He nodded, moving down as scooping her up as Brandon and Chris started moving people towards the doorway.

"I'll heal her once we get back home," he promised her as they headed out with the teenagers to find a safe place to orb to the apartment once they got everybody out. The danger was passed.

--

Bobby sat in the kitchen, keeping a couple potions in his hands just in case. Hannah was lying on the couch, quiet now and had been for awhile, but he wasn't going to take any chances.

He sighed as he cast a glance at Cassandra, who was eyeing him out of the corner of her eyes.

Ignoring her, Bobby turned his thoughts to a more pleasant avenue mixed with sadness.

Patty.

The bright, fun, easy-going witch that had welcomed her into her life and into her heart. And had thrown him out because of something he hadn't done and couldn't control. Just because his sister realised what her heart had been longing for all along . . .

Looking up as white lights appeared in the kitchen, Bobby got to his feet as Susan, Wyatt, Brandon, and Chris materialised into view, with Wyatt carrying Brooke in his arms. "Is she okay?" he asked, alarmed.

"She'll be fine," Wyatt assured him as he laid Brooke into a chair and laid his hands over her, the unearthly glow appearing as he healed her. Susan took Bobby's arm and led him away from the group.

"Your friend okay?" she asked, looking over at Hannah. He nodded. "All right, then why don't you go ahead and get her home. I don't want you to get in any trouble."

"I doubt Dad'll be bothered with me walking a girl home," Bobby admitted with a wry smile. "Somebody else might have different ideas about it, though," he mumbled, thinking of Patty.

To his surprise, Susan wrapped her arms around him, pulling him tight. "Don't you worry about it, little brother," she said gently as she pulled away. "I think things are gonna work out with you."

Bobby frowned at her. "How do you know?"

"Well, I am psychic, you know," Susan said, smirking. Bobby chuckled and she ruffled his hair. "Go on, get out of here. There's something that I need to do."

"Why do I have the feeling that this is going to be very good or very bad?" Bobby mused as he moved to wake Hannah.

Susan smiled as she looked back into the kitchen, where Brooke was already waking up. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked. Brooke nodded, rubbing her forehead as Wyatt held her in his lap. "Okay, do you guys mind if I take off? There's . . . something I need to do, someone I need to talk to."

"No, we're okay," Wyatt assured her. "Is everything okay?"

Susan sighed. "I'll let you know after I come back."

--

Patty laid on her stomach, a CD going on in the background of one of the songs that she and Bobby had done together. Her heart pained as she heard his wonderful voice singing with hers . . .

A knock came on the front door and she sighed, shutting off the boom box before walking to the door, opening it up to find Susan Dawson standing in the doorway.

"Hi, Patty," she said with a small smile at her. Patty's annoyance twitched as she stared at the girl who had successfully broken his cousin's heart—a heart that was still mending from when Bianca had betrayed him. "Can we talk?"

After a long moment, Patty finally opened the door wider and let her into the apartment.


	7. Moments That Pass by too Quickly

**Legacy: Power Thrust**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Seven: Moments that Pass By Too Quickly

Susan followed Patty into the Matthews-Mitchell apartment, well aware of the annoyed, resentful looks that were being thrown her way. Obviously, the youngest of Paige's kids wasn't too happy with her; a price that she'd paid when she had chosen Ethan over Chris.

"Well . . . you wanted to talk. So talk," Patty said flatly as she sat down at the table, opening the fridge and sorting through the various foods that were in there. Clearly, this wasn't going to be one of those nice, comfortable talks, judging from Patty's tone.

"I want to talk to you about Bobby," Susan said gently. Patty paused briefly, so fast that Susan half-thought that she imagined it, but then the younger girl shrugged carelessly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, her tone civil but as cold as ice. Susan gave her a sharp look as she sat down at the kitchen table. After a minute, Patty followed her direction, looking at the elder witchlighter indifferently.

"Yes, you do," Susan told her. "And for the record, I think that it's really great that you two are together. I think you'd be really good for Bobby. He needs somebody to fall back on, someone outside of family that he can share stuff with." She smiled at Patty, who's stony looked didn't fade.

"Yeah, well I thought you'd be good for Chris."

With a small sigh, Susan laid her hands on the table. "Patty," she said, "things with Chris . . . they were good, okay? I liked spending time with him and I care about him. In a different world, in a different life, then maybe things would've worked out differently. Maybe not, I don't know. The thing is that as much as I cared about him, I wasn't in love with him. Because I gave my heart away a long time ago. And I tried to convince myself that I didn't, tried to force myself to move on, that I was ready to move on when I wasn't. Because I never could be. Because I always was in love with Ethan and I always will be."

"Well, maybe you should have considered that before you moved into my cousin's heart and then successfully gave him the second broken heart that he's had since high school!"

Shaking her head, Susan gave the younger girl an exasperated sigh. "I wish that I had. I was so messed up back then, Patty. My mom was dead, my twin brother was dead, the love of my life left me so that I wouldn't be in danger, I was in a new town, with demons coming after me, the Underworld was starting to unite together again . . . I don't know if I was even capable of making a sound decision back then."

Patty had gone very still. "You've got a twin?"

Susan nodded. "A brother," she answered quietly. "His name was Ryan. Ryan James Dawson. And he was murdered by our father last March." Patty's face went white at her words. "Along with my mother and I was the sole survivor of the attack and only because Bobby saved my life."

"I'm sorry," Patty whispered, looking as though she might faint. Susan understood instantly why she'd asked; until that moment, she'd forgotten that Sam, Patty's sister, was also her twin.

"So am I. Sorry that he'll never be able to do all the things he planned, or marry the girl of his dreams, or see our little brother grow up to be quite an astounding man. And I think you know that he's already well on his way to accomplishing that." Patty smiled, looking down. "Look, I get that you're angry with me. I deserve it. I'm not saying that I don't or that you can't be as mad at me as you want. I've already told Chris this. But the problem is that you're putting blame on Bobby where you should be putting it on me."

"He didn't tell me about it," Patty snapped, tears flashing in her eyes. "How could he not tell me about it?"

"Well, it was kind of a long day. And besides that, you two have this sort of Romeo and Juliet thing, so it's not like he can pick up the phone and call you without someone at his house knowing about it. Plus, he left long before I actually broke things off with Chris and got together with Ethan, so he couldn't have exactly known what had happened. He might've suspected what went down after he left." Patty sighed. "I really think that you two need to work things out. Fight to make this relationship work, because you'll regret it in the long run if you don't."

"What does it matter?" Patty asked, shaking her head. "We can't do anything that a normal couple can do. We can't go to dances or out on dates or walk to class together. Just band and school and . . . just brief times when we can see each other . . ."

"Moments that pass by too quickly," Susan supplied with a sad smile. "I know. Patty, listen to me. What if you did break things off with Bobby, got together with some guy that you can be with, and then just when things are starting to get good, Bobby waltzed back into your life. And then . . . suddenly all the reasons why you two couldn't be together were gone. All the barriers were lifted and he came back into your life and into your heart. Do you really think that you could just continue to go back with your new boyfriend, when you and Bobby never really had the chance to have a normal relationship?"

Looking away from Susan, Patty sighed. "I don't know. Probably not. I . . . I can't really say, but . . . I really like him. I'd . . . I'd probably choose him, even though I'd feel really bad about it."

"That's the way that I feel. I love Ethan, more than I will ever love anything in this life, but that doesn't mean I don't feel guilty about the way that I treated Chris. It doesn't make up for it and I can't apologise for it, because no words in the world are enough for how sorry I am." Susan paused. "Patty, I can't force you to stay with Bobby, but I know that you really care about my brother and I know that he cares about you. He told me . . . what was it, now? Oh, yes. . . . 'She's the one thing in my scary, messed up world that makes sense to me.'" A smile blossomed across Patty's face as she said that. "And he said that he didn't feel the darkness when he was with you. He needs that, Patty. He needs not to feel the darkness that he's with every day. And it's not right to blame him for something he can't control. Even if he had told me to stay with Chris, I probably wouldn't have listened. And I really don't think that it's Chris's and my relationship not working out that was the cause for this. Was it?" she added, eyeing the younger girl pointedly.

"No, it's . . . it's everything!" Patty blurted out, startled that she was saying this to her cousin's ex. "It's not having a normal relationship, like I said! We can't do anything that a normal couple does! I look around at the others at our school, just do ordinary things, like holding hands and walking each other to class and making plans after school and I can't help but think that we're never going to be able to do any of that stuff. We're not normal and we're never going to be. We just . . . we live in a world that nobody else knows exists. And we have to keep this a secret because of his father. Your father," she added.

Susan's eyes had grown cold. "My father," she said flatly, "will always be the evil monster that abandoned me and killed my family. And you and I know that Bobby lies within the darkness, but is not part of it. But sometimes, the darkness strikes even the purest. He's needs you to stay afloat. And you need him," she added, "because without him, your life will mean nothing. Besides," she said dryly, "normal is vastly overrated."

Patty let out a soft laugh before looking up at the witchlighter helplessly. "What do I do?"

"Run," Susan advised.

--

Bobby sat on a bench in the middle of the park, watching the happy couples that were walking by, his heart paining as he watched them, the longing for the one girl that had ever touched his heart increasing with every second.

A lone tear fell from his eye and he brushed it away impatiently, refusing to resort to waterworks just because the girl that he was in love with didn't care about him the same way. He'd thought that she had, but maybe this was just the proof that she was trying to find a way out, the proof that he really did belong in the darkness, despite what his sister told him.

Maybe it was just time that he stopped pretending to be something that he wasn't. He was so sick of fighting . . .

But no, he couldn't do that. Even if he wanted, he couldn't force his sister to lose yet another brother. Susan had already lost Ryan to death, he couldn't condemn her to losing him to evil. She already had been through so much and besides . . . he couldn't follow down that path. He'd already seen what it did.

But that didn't mean that he didn't feel the darkness weighing down upon him sometimes. And Patty was the one thing that made it worth it, made it feel like the darkness didn't weigh so much. She came in and lifted the weight right off of him like it was nothing and tossed it aside.

"Bobby!"

Looking around, Bobby stared as he saw Patty running towards him, her hair windblown and her chest heaving as though she had run a long way. A small smile crossed his face as he saw her, standing up as Patty came to a stop right next to him.

"Patty, what are you doing here?" he whispered, wondering what was going on. Had something happened?

"You were right," Patty blurted out. "I was blaming you for stuff that really isn't your fault. And Susan isn't really the heartless creature that I was making her out to be. She really is a good person, she just was lost. I get that now. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything."

Bobby couldn't help but laugh as his arms went around her. "I'm sorry, too," he admitted. "I should've said something about what happened when Susan went missing. Next time, I promise I'll call or e-mail you or something."

"Shh." Patty placed a finger against his lips. "Stop talking," she ordered. "You talk too much."

"Your wish is my command," Bobby whispered as he buried his head into her shoulder, holding her close. He could feel her tears against his shoulder, making him hold on to her tighter and for once, he didn't care what happened. All of his father's demons, his mother, even his father himself could've been standing right next to them and he wouldn't have noticed or cared.

"Will your dad notice if you don't come home tonight?" Patty whispered, looking up at him. Bobby raised his eyebrows, but shook his head. "Good. There's someplace I want to show you. Take my hand," she said, holding her palm up. He slipped his fingers into hers. "Do you trust me?"

"I trust you."

Patty smiled at him as she orbed them away, vanishing in the swirl of white lights and Bobby suddenly found himself at a lake that looked like a camp. "Where are we?"

Sitting down on the docks, Patty swung her legs over the edge, motioning Bobby to join her. "This is where my grandmother was killed by a demon," she answered quietly. "I come here sometimes, just to think. The only time that anybody's here is when camp's in session, so when we want to be along, we can come here. This can be our spot." She looked up at him hopefully. "I mean . . . if you want it to be."

Bobby was just staring at her, wondering how he could've been so lucky as to have such a wonderful girl in his life. "Has anybody ever told you how amazing you are?"

Grinning at him, Patty navigated herself into his arms, leaning her head back into the base of his neck. "Not recently," she acknowledged.

"You're amazing."

"And it's always good to hear it, especially from you," Patty sighed as she curled up in his arms. Bobby wrapped his arms around her, leaning his chin on top of her shoulders. "I don't care what happens. I want to be with you. I've made my decision. I know what I want."

"And what's that?" Bobby asked, his tone light, teasing. She gave him a playful smile in reply.

"You," she answered, tilting her head back. "Now . . . kiss me."

Obligingly, Bobby bent his head down and kissed her, knowing full well that their love could destroy their lives and the lives of those they loved forever. But he also knew that he couldn't stay away from her anymore. He didn't have that strength.

He just prayed that their love would not bring forth the end of the world as they knew it.

**--Fade to Black--**

**End Credits**

Guest Stars:

Alexis Bledel as Patty Matthews-Mitchell

Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell

Jack Devonport as Peter Connelly

Robert Pattinson as Ethan Hale

Kiera Knightly as Cassandra Hale

and Brittney Snow as Hannah Williams


End file.
